Today, France’s highest court, the Conseil d’Etat, has confirmed that the European Court of Justice’s judgment that the 2008 French ban on the cultivation of genetically modified crops (GM) is illegal. Both courts overturned the national ban declaring that the French Government presented no scientific evidence of any risk to health or the environment from these crops.

Carel du Marchie Sarvaas, EuropaBio’s Director of Green Biotechnology Europe, commented, “These judgments from the highest European court and the highest French court send one message loud and clear: bans of GM crops cannot be based on political dogma. As both judgments state, no ban on planting GM crops can be declared without valid scientific evidence, something that France and other European countries have not produced.”